


On The Run

by triggeringthehealing (froggydarren)



Series: Flash Ficlets [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alpha Derek, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canonical Character Death, Gen, Near Future, POV Alternating, Werewolf Reveal, mentioned Claudia Stilinski's death, mentioned Hale House fire
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-05-08
Updated: 2018-09-28
Packaged: 2018-10-29 18:05:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 4,105
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10859238
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/froggydarren/pseuds/triggeringthehealing
Summary: It’s been five years since the existence of werewolves has been revealed to the population of the world. Five years since the supernatural part of the world stopped being invisible to regular humans.It’s been five years since Derek started running.





	1. Derek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the [Weekend Writing Marathon Flash Ficlet](http://weekendwritingmarathon.tumblr.com/post/160266614859/flash-ficlet-prompt-may-2nd) challenge.

It’s been five years since the existence of werewolves has been revealed to the population of the world. Five years since the supernatural part of the world stopped being invisible to regular humans.

It’s been five years since Derek started running.

The reveal happened in the worst way possible for him.

After his family was burned to ashes by out of control hunters, only he and his sister Laura carried the Hale name. Then two years later, when they were finally settling down in New York, the call came. The hunters were rounded up -- all but one, who just happened to be the one that orchestrated the whole plan -- and put on trial. Laura, older by three years and therefore Derek’s legal guardian since he’d been sixteen when they were orphaned, was asked for a victim statement.

Derek didn’t want to go, didn’t have the strength to face the hunters who did the damage or the town that had nothing but painful memories now. But since Laura went, Derek followed, unwilling to leave his sister’s side for any time at all.

The trial was a big deal, eleven victims of a variety of ages dead, and the attention of the whole town and more was on the proceedings. Which was why there were multiple angles of the moment when a badly damaged creature burst into the courtroom, aimed straight for the hunters on the defendant side, and ripped into them.

Laura reacted automatically, to danger and to the familiar scent that neither she nor Derek had smelled in two years on anyone but each other. By the time Derek figured out that the creature that attacked was their uncle Peter -- there was no identification of the victims of the fire, and the investigators assumed he’d perished along with everyone else, though they didn’t find the body -- Laura was gone.

She managed to take out Peter, but he got one last swipe in, one perfectly aimed move that left her gasping and falling backwards, pulling him onto her claws before she let out one last breath, Derek’s name carried on it in a whisper.

Derek’s eyes flashed red before he knew what was happening, and he didn’t think. He left Peter, grabbed Laura’s lifeless body, and broke through the nearest window on his way out, out and far away.

The subsequent investigation revealed the whole Hale family as werewolves, and with that, the bubble was burst open. Hunters rallied in defence of their friends who’d been killed in the court, using Peter as their proof that they did the right thing. In response, human members of werewolf packs came out of the woodwork -- a lot of them literally -- to defend Derek and Laura, and all werewolves. Laws were drawn up, and the world was slowly adjusting, little by little, person by person. Derek only knew a little of what was going on, though.

He left that day, buried Laura near their old family home, and then -- before anyone thought to look for him there -- he disappeared into the forest, avoiding every sign of humans or other weres.

It’s been years, and he still doesn’t understand what happened that day. Why Peter was there, how he managed to take out Laura who should’ve been stronger since she was an Alpha. All he remembers is freezing in fear at the monster that attacked his sister, the creature that had no resemblance to _any_ shapes that he’d ever seen werewolves take. The years that he’s been on the run have been filled with nightmares filled with images of everyone he knew turning into the same creature, the same abomination.

Everyone, including himself.

He usually stays away from humans, and from any civilisation even when he can smell the supernatural. Sometimes it’s inevitable though, and he uses that to keep at least a little up to date on what’s happening. Most of the time it’s old newspapers, but every once in a while he catches a glimpse of a TV.

Today marks the anniversary of _that_ day, and Derek is close to the small town that he grew up in again. It’s late, dark, and that’s why he dares sneaking up to a house on the edge of the town so he can peek in the window.

He’s in luck, as the TV screen is angled so he can see it from outside, clearly visible through the window.

It flickers, and he freezes when the red scrolling banner on the bottom gets obscured by an alert.

 _Uncontrollable._   
_Dangerous._ _  
Do not approach_.

The words of the breaking news alert appear on the screen, just below a photo he recognises all too well. It’s an image of the attack, of the monster that his uncle turned into. And then, before Derek can figure out whether Peter somehow managed to come back from the dead, the image is replaced by another photo, one that makes his blood run cold.

It’s him -- a photo of him from years ago, from before the fire. It’s side by side with a rendering of how he’s supposed to look now, older and darker, the eyes Alpha red, and lips curled back over elongated fangs. It’s not the image that he’s seen in reflections lately, but close enough to make him panic.

A beat later, he’s running again.


	2. Stiles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the [Full Moon Ficlet](http://fullmoon-ficlet.livejournal.com/487556.html) challenge on Livejournal - prompt #223: follow

He remembers the Hales.

Even though the fire happened right when he and his Dad were too busy trying to pretend that their own world wasn’t slowly falling apart, it was such a big disaster that even their minds registered it.

He’d known Cora from school, quiet but fierce, only a year ahead of him. He’d known Mrs. Hale, a steady and calming presence in town at all times, though he didn’t know what exactly it was that she did. He’d seen others, names he only put to faces when he’d read the list printed in the local paper. Some older, people he knew his parents had talked to, and some younger, even younger than him.

He remembers them still, people lost in a moment, more people than he can even comprehend losing. Because now it’s just him and his dad, their own loss all those years ago seeming so much smaller in comparison, though by no means easier.

Stiles wondered before how Laura and Derek managed to survive, how they got by from day to day. For two years, he couldn’t imagine carrying on if he’d lost more than he did, more than his Mom. And then the trial happened.

He was twelve then, in middle school, on that precarious edge between childhood and puberty. It was the year when he finally got his hands on a police scanner, after several panic attacks when he didn’t know whether his Dad would come home from a shift since he was elected Sheriff.

 _On the run._   
_Dangerous._ _  
Entering the Preserve prohibited at all times_.

When the headlines scroll across the screen now, they bring him right back to the day of the trial, the day when all of a sudden werewolves were _real_. Or at least real to him and to the rest of the world. He remembers thinking that the creature that attacked wasn’t right, that it wasn’t what werewolves were supposed to be. He remembers seeing Laura and Derek’s faces change, shift into shapes that were still human at the core, a stark contrast to the monster that charged into the courtroom. He remembers thinking it was an abomination, something out of a horror movie.

And he also remembers thinking that neither Derek nor Laura were like that. Not monstrous, not dangerous, nor anything that the public has been calling them since.

 _Do not approach_.

He sees the headline scroll by again barely a second before there’s a rustle outside the window. It’s only because he has the TV muted -- tired of the repeated story that’s been on the news channel every year on the trial’s anniversary date -- that he can hear it. There’s something outside. Some _one_.

Stiles only hesitates long enough to realise that he’ll not be able to drive. His Jeep is at the mechanic’s, once again too beat up -- it’s only holding together on tape and prayers nowadays -- and he’s home alone.

It should scare him, really, hearing something outside the house when no one else is there. But he’s a cop’s kid, and he knows that the house is locked. Not to mention that everyone in town is aware of the fact that the house is the Sheriff’s, and they wouldn’t dare breaking in. He’s already pulling on his shoes when the thought crosses his mind that it might be someone who _doesn’t_ know, but it doesn’t linger.

By the time he’s at the back door, close to the backyard where the rustle came from, his fingers are wrapped around the baseball bat that he “liberated” from his best friend Scott’s house some time back.

The door lets out a tiny creak when he opens it, and he flicks on the floodlight to illuminate the yard. He sees nothing at first, only grass that seems untouched, and shadows where the forest begins. But then he spots a patch underneath the living room window, grass that’s clearly flattened like someone stood on it. Everything is quiet while Stiles narrows his eyes to check if there’s a trail across the lawn.

It takes a moment to spot the footprints, light and less pronounced than he’d expect them to be if they’d been made by an adult. They lead towards the edge of the forest, so he does the only thing he can think of -- he follows.


	3. Derek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the [Full Moon Ficlet](http://fullmoon-ficlet.livejournal.com/494266.html) challenge on Livejournal - prompt #227: cave

Derek doesn’t have a place in mind when he runs. Not now, not in the past. Not since he lost Laura to a feral Peter, not since the fire took almost everyone from him, not since the world found out about werewolves. He just runs, and doesn’t stop until he’s exhausted. 

It’s then that he usually finds a spot where he can regain strength, get some rest, and sleep only long enough to know that he can keep running. 

It’s a little different now that he’s in Beacon Hills though. This is land he knows, so while he’s looking over his shoulder just as much as somewhere new, he’s also more settled even as he sprints through the woods. It’s  _ his land _ , his territory, trees and paths familiar from the years he spent exploring them as a child. He knows the nooks and crannies of the Preserve even though it’s not maintained, and hasn’t been in five years. 

He knows he needs to get away from the rest of the town though, and from places where he  _ could _ be spotted. Because the news report he spotted through the window of the house he approached was enough to tell him that he’s not welcome. 

_ Do Not Approach _ .

When he thinks about it, it’s with a bitter amusement. If he could, he’d take that advice himself. Running away is not about escaping someone else, it’s about trying to get away from his own thoughts, his own guilt, his own pain. 

_ I wouldn’t approach myself if I had the choice _ , he thinks as he dashes through the bushes and the shrubbery, making a wide arc around where he knows the burned down house is. Yet another memory he’s not keen on revisiting, even if he can still smell the phantom remnants of the ashes and smoke.  

About halfway through his run, he shifts into his full wolf form, something he’s learned to accept despite the hate. He can only do that because he’s an Alpha, and he’s only that because Laura is gone. It reminds him that it’s a full moon, and that he should be away from anyone human. He’s without an anchor, at least one that would ground him. 

Grief, the anchor that he has, isn’t enough to drag humanity back into him. It makes him want to stay wolf, with the basic instincts and simpler thoughts. 

_ Run run run _ repeats in his head as he ducks low branches and finds his way deeper into the forest, towards the centre of the Preserve. It’s the wolf side of him that guides him now, leads him towards a cave that he used to hide in as a child, the one that only his Dad knew about. 

It’s still there, the outside covered in moss and leaves, but the entrance big enough to allow him in. Once he’s out of the moonlight, Derek feels the tingling in his bones and muscles, but he doesn’t shift. As a wolf, it’s easier to curl up on the ground by one of the walls, and to drift into unsettled sleep. 

He wakes up with a start some time later, wondering if any time at all has passed. Still blinking his way into consciousness, his ears twitch when he hears it.

Footsteps, and the scent reminding him of the house he ran away from earlier.


	4. Stiles

The forest is predictably dark when Stiles heads towards it. The house behind him is just as bad, but the flood light still illuminates the yard, making the contrast to the darkness ahead of him that much more stark. 

It’s not that he’s afraid of going in, he’s roamed the space before at all times of the day and night, with or without Scott. But the noise that drew him out somehow felt different, and the news headline still plays in his head. 

_ Dangerous. Do Not Approach. _

Stiles knows that the drama surrounding the Hale family is mostly media hype, the werewolf reveal at the Kate Argent trial and the video of Peter attacking is nothing but a TV alternative to clickbait. But still, the forest he’s walking towards used to be theirs, and Stiles never quite managed to shake the thought that  _ maybe _ one day someone would return. Not that there was any sign of life in the past five years. 

Once he’s inside the forest and his eyes adjust, it’s surprisingly bright. It’s then that he realises that it’s a full moon, and he has a moment of hesitation about walking into a werewolf territory. It doesn’t last though, because Stiles’ curiosity often wins over his sense of self-preservation, as his Dad likes to say. 

The first place he heads to is the old Hale house. Now a ruin in the middle of what he imagines used to be a nice and cared for meadow surrounded by trees, it’s barely holding up. It looks eerie -- walls charred and destroyed by the fire that ravaged it years ago, broken glass in the windows -- and Stiles almost feels the ghosts of the people who lived there. He doesn’t linger, since he’s pretty sure that no one and nothing could go inside without causing the house to crash onto itself. 

Instead, with barely a look back, he walks past it and towards the elevated centre of the Preserve, where the trees are closer together and the paths narrower. There’s a hill there that he and Scott used to go to, with several small caves and hideouts that were perfect for exploring. He’s not sure why he’s drawn there, but something tells him that he might find the answer to the mystery sound he heard from outside his house earlier. 

As he tries to walk through the shrubbery quietly, Stiles thinks about the news again. About the headlines that seem to be pushing the world to be afraid of werewolves, to fear  _ Derek Hale _ especially, like he was the one who attacked Laura at the trial. Like maybe he was even responsible for the fire that wiped out his family. 

_ He’s not a monster _ , Stiles thinks.  _ None of them are. Except Peter _ . 

Peter Hale, in his damaged and wrong shape, with the anger that drove him to destroy almost everything that was left of the Beacon Hills pack. Stiles shudders at the memory of the abomination he saw then, but he reminds himself that Peter is gone. That Laura’s last act was to protect her brother, even though it meant killing her own uncle. 

Still lost in those thoughts, Stiles finally gets to the caves that he’s been looking for, and he glances around with caution. The forest around him is silent, like everything alive has retreated somewhere far away from here. It just clicks that the silence means that he’s probably right about finding what he set out looking for when he hears the quiet warning growl from inside of one of the caves. 


	5. Derek

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the [Full Moon Ficlet](http://fullmoonficlet.tumblr.com/post/169960893268/sign-up-for-prompt-260-introduction) challenge on tumblr - prompt #260: introduction

The rumbling from Derek’s chest resonates through the cavern, too loud in the silence of the space. He’s pretty sure that whoever is out there can hear it, and for a moment, when the footsteps pause, Derek hopes that he’ll be left alone.

The growling stops, and he listens to the sounds from outside. He hasn’t shifted to his Beta form, and his ears twitch when he hears leaves crunching closer and closer to the entrance he’s got his eyes on. And then there’s a shadow, a silhouette illuminated by the moon’s light outside. Fearless — or reckless — the human takes a step inside, hands up in the air.

“Hey,” the man speaks quietly. “Hi.”

To his own surprise, Derek feels like he’d be chuckling if he were human right now. Instead, his chest rumbles with another warning growl, quieter than the one earlier.

“I’m unarmed. Well, with the exception of my sharp wit,” he hears the guy say. “I’m not here to hurt you, I promise.”

Derek lets out a huff and takes a step back towards the wall behind him.

“I’m Stiles. And I’m sorry that I’m intruding on your safe spot, but you were by my house earlier and I wondered…”

There’s another growl, but it’s weaker, almost like a frustrated whine, and Derek would cringe were he not a wolf right now.

He was careless. He knew that when he was by the house, when he peeked into the window, when he didn’t just stay away from everything human. But still, he didn’t expect anyone to _follow him_. Not into the forest, in the middle of the night, on a full moon.

“So, anyway, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay,” Stiles says. “And maybe you’re not who I think you are. In which case I’m talking to an actual wolf, and that wouldn’t be weird if I was Scott, since he’s the vet’s apprentice. You could like, let me know if you’re _not_ a wolf, just so I know that I haven’t gone off the rails entirely.”

Derek huffs, but — he’s not sure why, for the first time in years, he feels like it’s okay to trust this kid who walked into a wolf’s den with only a small hint of fear — he flashes his eyes, letting the red bleed and glow.

“Oh. Right. Yeah, that works,” Stiles says, this time with a little more worry in his voice. “Alpha. Okay. So, now I’m really pretty sure that I know who you are.”

Derek growls again, all too aware of what exactly the image of him is in the world.

“No, _no_ ,” Stiles says quickly. “No, not the stupidity in the news. I… look, I remember you. From years back. Cora was a year ahead of me in school…”

This time it’s definitely a whine that slips out of Derek’s muzzle, the pain of the loss hitting him in a way it hasn’t since the trial. Because he wasn’t around anyone who would mention his family by name since then. He hasn’t given himself a chance to be reminded.

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” Stiles rushes to say. “I shouldn’t have mentioned… man, I’m screwing this up royally, aren’t I? I just wanted you to know who I am, and that I don’t mean no harm. I swear I don’t.”

Still feeling the pain in his chest, Derek makes himself breathe more steadily, and then, after another few beats of hesitation, he lets go of the shift. His bones crack as his body changes, and when he does, he blinks a few times to let his human sight adjust to the low light.

Stiles is still there, unflinching, hands up in the air, eyes wide open as he stares at Derek without saying a word.

“Hi,” Derek says, voice quiet and a little rough since he hasn’t used it in so long.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Updated for WiP Week - AU WiP theme

Stiles can’t stop the breath of relief that whooshes out of his lungs as he watches Derek shift. Then, when he inhales again, his brain slowly registers the fact that while Derek was covered in his own fur as a wolf, he doesn’t seem to have retained his clothing from _before_ he shifted.

“Um, you’re… I didn’t consider that…” Stiles says, voice shaky.

Derek frowns, then he looks down and huffs. Stiles would be amused, but that would require his libido to _not_ focus on the fact that not only is Derek wildly attractive — something he didn’t expect, remembering the kid he knew of before the fire — but also very much naked. And Stiles has yet to have experience with someone else’s nudity up close. Of course, he’s very familiar with his own nudity but…

He stops his mind from wandering once he sees Derek’s eyebrow lift with curiosity.

“Hey, healthy bisexual here, can’t blame me for appreciating the view,” Stiles blurts, and tries to act nonchalant to match his words.

He’s probably failing.

“Anyway, I just wanted to make sure you’re okay, and maybe offer refuge if you needed it,” he tells Derek quietly.

“Not a fugitive,” Derek grumbles, shrinking a little towards the wall behind him.

“No, I know, but if you were interested in a warm meal and… maybe clothes?”

Derek lifts an eyebrow again.

“What? I’m just saying. You might need some, unless you decide to wolf it for eternity,” Stiles tells him, grinning. “You are pretty cool as a wolf though, but I’ve heard it’s not particularly healthy for you guys to stay like that for too long. Something about losing touch with humanity?”

“How do you know that?” Derek asks, voice sharp and eyebrows drawn together, a glint of red flashing through his eyes.

“My Dad’s the Sheriff,” Stiles says, then realizes that it probably isn’t enough of an explanation for his knowledge. “He knew your parents, and he’s… well, he knows a lot about this town, and who lives here. Lived. He knew Laura.”

“Oh.”

“But I also know because my Mom knew, since forever,” Stiles says then. “She had magic, and she knew your family.”

Despite the dimness of the light in the cave, Stiles can see Derek’s eyes widen in surprise.

"If you're wondering whether you should remember her--" Stiles continues hastily, "--it's unlikely. She hasn't been close to any of you, but she was aware of the pack.”

"That's unusual," Derek says, his confusion giving way to what looks like irritation to Stiles. 

"Well, she didn't have enough magic to become an emissary. Or not the  _right_  kind of magic, at least," he explains to Derek. "But her family...  _my_  family has a long history of magic."

"I can't smell magic on you," Derek says gruffly, then sniffs the air like he's trying to find the right scent.

"You wouldn't. I'm a spark, not a druid. Turns out that since I can only channel magic and don't innately have it, there's no giveaway of it in my scent or anywhere."

"You talk a lot."

Stiles chuckles; a hint of derision in his tone.

"Oh if only I had a dollar for every time someone told me that," he tells Derek. "Would make student loans that much easier to pay off. Or well, I probably wouldn't have any." 

"Why did you come here?" 

"Like I said, I wanted to make sure you're okay. I didn't know for sure that it was you, but my dad likes to say that I have no self-preservation instinct."

Derek huffs with what could maybe be amusement if Stiles lets himself believe that. 

"By the time I was here, I figured whoever was by my window was probably not just a random human," Stiles continues. "No one really knows about this place beside me and Scott."

"I do," Derek tells him. "I grew up here."

"Well, yeah. Obviously. Which is how I figured it had to be you," Stiles tells him, only just managing to hold back the 'duh' that's close to slipping out of his mouth. 

It's probably not a good idea to antagonize the guy who can turn into a wolf that is bigger than Stiles.

**Author's Note:**

> [my tumblr](http://froggydarren.tumblr.com/) || [my sterek fic tumblr](http://triggeringthehealing.tumblr.com/)


End file.
